Kittanning Care Center

One of the many reasons this turned out to be a quality nursing home is that it received an A+ inspection grade. This is simply as good as it gets in this critical category. Our inspection ratings weigh a host of factors found on a facility's inspection reports. One of the most important criteria we look at is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. Facilities with better scores in this category generally have few severe deficiencies. Fortunately, although this nursing home had some minor dings on its report, it had zero severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are ones found in categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This tells you CMS didn't deem any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient safety or health. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

This nursing home was given a strong long-term care score as well. We awarded it one of our higher grades in that category with a grade of B+. Facilities that do well in this category tend to provide residents with closer supervision and stay on top of routine healthcare services. On top of considering the volume of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we analyzed the number of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This facility provided the vaccine to 100 percent of its residents, which is an impressive figure. Pneumonia sadly is often a life threatening ailment for nursing home residents so we strongly prefer when a nursing home does not roll the dice on this issue. Lastly, this place was able to limit hospitalizations. Indeed, it had only 0 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.

The third category we assessed is short-term care. This facility was given a favorable short-term care score, with a B in the category. In determining our short-term care scores, we look at a facility's levels of highly skilled nursing services, which includes registered nurses, physical therapists occupational therapists and other types of therapists. This rating is considered to be a reliable measure of a nursing home's rehabilitation services. Fortunately, it appear that this facility has registered nurses on staff. Not all nursing homes employs these skilled professionals. On the other hand, according to the information this nursing home provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. Lastly, we assessed the percentage of residents who were able to return to the community from this nursing home. We found that 0 percent of this facility's residents returned home.

Turning to our fourth area, this facility was awarded a decent nursing grade. Although this isn't nearly as elite as some of its other scores, this is truly a middle of the pack score. Our nursing score weighs many data points, most of which are based on nursing hours. This place provides only 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident on a daily basis. This is a somewhat uninspiring figure which is well below the national average. Lastly, our nursing ratings also consider quality-based metrics, such as preventing major falls. Despite not having the highest total nursing hours, this place performed admirably in the area of preventing major falls. This is generally a reliable indicator that a place has sufficient quality controls in place. Many falls can be avoided if a facility supplies enough nurses aids to assist its residents.